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By Stacy Jayne Saggers and Senamile Zungu

One of the biggest misconceptions we’ve encountered in both corporate boardrooms and social conversations is the belief that driving equity and inclusion is someone else’s job. Often, it’s seen as a KPI advocated for by HR or a mandate for leadership to trickle down. While both play critical roles, culture is shaped by everyone. Inclusion is not just strategy – it’s a series of small, everyday choices made by individuals, based on where they are and the influence they hold.

In the global corporate climate where DEI rollbacks are growing and women (particularly Black women and women of colour) are navigating exclusionary systems, we believe in doing the opposite: being intentionally, even revolutionarily inclusive in how we lead, speak, listen, and act. That belief is what sparked our podcast Colour-Full.

How we met

In late 2023, Stacy was two months post-divorce, balancing single motherhood with a demanding leadership role at Kantar. Exhausted and emotionally depleted, she found herself interviewing candidates for a process and support role.

That’s when Sena entered the room – via Zoom. A law graduate who had just left a racially toxic, male-dominated law firm, she has an incredible intellect and critical perspective shaped by the lived experience of the systemic barriers women of colour face at work. She later confessed to thinking the interview was a trick: Stacy, with her sick child asleep on her lap, didn’t fit the corporate mould she was conditioned to expect.

That moment – raw, real, and unexpected – was the beginning of an honest dialogue between the two women. We came from different worlds: different races, ages, backgrounds, and life paths. But we shared a desire to tell the truth. Not just about the challenges women face at work, but about the responsibility those of us in positions of privilege carry to widen the door for others.

From conversation to creation

Colour-Full started not because we had all the answers, but because we had questions – urgent, personal, and shared by many. What does real inclusion look like, beyond a corporate tagline? How do we acknowledge power and privilege without guilt, but with purpose? And how do we move beyond theory to action?

Sometimes inclusion means calling out bias or backing a colleague in a high-stakes meeting. But often, it’s quieter: noticing whose voice is missing, offering someone a platform, or listening without defensiveness when someone shares a painful truth. These choices, when made consistently, shape culture far more than slogans ever could.

Our podcast has become a space to model these conversations – not from a place of expertise, but from vulnerability. We’ve interviewed guests like Lesego Tlhabi, Dan Corder, and Jason Goliath, exploring identity, race, gender, and humour with honesty and heart. Listeners often tell us the episodes help them reflect on their own workspaces and social spaces with more empathy and confidence.

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Why inclusion needs leadership – not just leaders

The personal growth we’ve experienced has transformed our professional leadership too. Stacy now integrates DEI into strategic client conversations and leads cross-cultural teams by cultivating psychological safety. Sena, now Commercial Lead for South Africa, drives internal dialogues about representation and inclusion, recently taking on a global knowledge leadership role, spotlighting the experiences of LGBTQIA+ families.

We’ve seen firsthand that when women in leadership speak openly about their own learning journeys, they give others permission to do the same. And that’s especially important when navigating race and privilege. White women in leadership, in particular, have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to use their influence to amplify, not just support, the voices of those who are forced by systems not designed to promote everyone, to fight for visibility.

Start where you are

You don’t need a title or a podcast to drive change. The boardroom, the brainstorm, the hallway conversation – they’re all platforms. So, ask the question no one is asking. Offer the seat no one expects. Make space, not just for the voices like yours, but for the ones the system has trained you not to hear.

Because change doesn’t begin with a strategy. It begins with the quiet courage to speak – and the even deeper courage to listen.

Stacy and Senamile work at Kantar, the largest global consumer insights and data analytics agency. Stacy is the Commercial Growth Director for Africa, and Sena is the Commercial Lead for South Africa. They also co-host a podcast called Colour-Full, which uses personal stories to unpack issues of race, identity, privilege, and inclusion.

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